the unfortunate players, that door led into the second story of the
building at the corner of Fourteenth Street and Tobacco Alley, in which
Messrs. Ellis & Allan earned a comfortable, but not luxurious, living
by the sale of the commodity which gave the alley its name. As it was
customary in those days for merchants to live in the same building with
their business, the fact that he did so does not argue that Mr. Allan
was "down on his luck," but neither does it presuppose that he was the
possessor of wealth. But it was a home in the truest sense for little
Edgar, for it was radiant with the love of the tender-hearted woman who
had brought him within its friendly walls.

From this home Mr. Allan went to London to establish a branch of the
Company business. He was accompanied by Mrs. Allan and Edgar, and the
boy was placed in the school of Stoke-Newington, shadowy with the dim
procession of the ages and gloomed over by the memory of Eugene Aram.
The pictured face of the head of the Manor School, Dr. Bransby,
indicates that the hapless boys under his care had stronger than
historic reasons for depression in that ancient institution.

England was thrilling with the triumph of Waterloo, and even
Stoke-Newington must have awakened to the pulsing of the atmosphere.
Not far away were Byron, Shelley, and Keats, at the beginning of their
brief and brilliant careers, the glory and the tragedy of which may
have thrown a prophetic shadow over the American boy who was to travel
a yet darker path than any of these.

Under the elms that bordered the old Roman road, what forms of antique
romance would lie in wait for the dreamy lad, joining him in his
Saturday afternoon walks and telling him stories of their youth in the
ancient days to mingle with the age-youth in the heart of the